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Putting your passion to work through organizing

By Leadership for Educational Equity

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When Arleen Vargas found out her father wasn’t a citizen, she was shocked. But the very first emotion that she felt? Fear. Fear of having to get on a plane to see him. Fear of having him ripped from his life because he lacked a piece of paper certifying his 40-year life in the United States. And that fear caused her to start asking questions.

“What I am doing? How is my work helping my dad? How is my work helping others who feel the same way I feel at this moment?”

“Through the fellowship, I found my calling to organize. I’ve attended trainings and workshops, and, most importantly, I’ve been given a community of organizers ready to do the work and invested in my growth. The fellowship helped me find a place to channel my frustrations and passions into action.”

“During my five months here, I have been able to re-engage the Latino population that has not been active in years. Each day I am meeting with five or six leaders in the community, who give me a picture of D.C. history that a book could never capture. Through these meetings, I uncover more leaders that are ready to act.”

During her time in the fellowship, Arleen has come to live by this motto: don’t do for people what they can do for themselves. It is why she now teaches her family to fight for themselves in a system that used to make them feel powerless.

“I am no longer just an advocate. I am helping those in my community rediscover their power and am fighting alongside them. I am fighting with people who believe in something better than they see in their community today. Simply put, I am an organizer.”

If you want to learn more about how you can become a Community Organizing Fellow, click here.

Arleen Vargas was a 2013 Teach For America corps member serving in Delaware.

Ryan Smith, executive director of The Education Trust-West, joins LEE for the launch of The Leaders' Table podcast. Ryan riffs with Jason Llorenz on advocacy in a very big state, shares advice for future executive directors, and talks about what it takes to make policy with communities, not for them.

Leadership for Educational Equity uses think-cell—an Office add-in which integrates seamlessly with PowerPoint and helps you to visualize complex charts like Marimekko, Gantt and waterfall within minutes. think-cell also enables users to maintain a presentation's structure with auto-updating agendas, and consistently round numbers in Excel sheets. It is used by all major consulting firms on a daily basis. Free licenses of think-cell are available for LEE staff members. Refer to the online documentation, screen-casts and knowledge base to get started with think-cell.